Dimi Papadatos the leading Australian at the British Masters

Dimi Papadatos was the leading Australian at the British Masters at the Hillside Golf Club in Southport in England but the man still awaiting full status on the European Tour finished seven behind the winner, Marcus Kinhult of Sweden, who held out Eddie Pepperell, Matt Wallace and Robert MacIntyre by one shot.

Papadatos was playing the event courtesy of his standing on the 2018 Challenge Tour although as a result of that and his Australasian Tour status he has now managed to play eight events either stand-alone or jointly sanctioned on the 2019 European Tour schedule, this being his best finish amongst those.

Papadatos earned €44,000 (A$70,000) and moves to 137th in the Race to Dubai Ranking and still has a lot of work ahead of him if he is to secure European Tour status for 2020.

Scott Hend and Lucas Herbert tied for 35th, Hend struggling over the weekend after what had been a good stance.

Jason Scrivener, the only other Australian to make the weekend, finished 58th.

Hend remains as the leading Australian on the Race to Dubai Rankings, the Florida based Queenslander currently in 15th place, his win in the jointly sanctioned Maybank Championship the highlight of his year to date.

The winner, Kinhult. won his first European Tour title by holding off strong challenges from the four who shared the runner-up place, MacIntyre and Pepperell, in particular, producing impressive final rounds to all but force a playoff.

Kinhult was forced to birdie his final two holes to edge ahead and after four consecutive missed cuts it was quite a reversal of form for the 22 year old.

“It’s unreal,” said the winner. “I've been dreaming about it for such a long time and to finally do it is amazing. My knees were shaking on that final putt. My hands were shaking. Everything was shaking. It’s hard to remember now. Just so many nerves and so much willpower I guess. It’s a cool feeling.

“I had a great first impression when I got here Monday. I was just loving it here. The weather has been fantastic over the weekend. The crowds have been great crowds this week. I was surprised to see that many coming out on the weekend, since it's a Premier League day today."

Aaron Baddeley was the only Australian to make the cut at the Charles Schwab Challenge at the Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth in Texas, his second round of 69 just enough to get him inside the cutline.

In what has been a disappointing week thus far for the Australian contingent at the Made in Denmark event on the European Tour, Wade Ormsby has done best with rounds of 71 and 70 to be in a share of 30th place and seven shots from the leader, Matthias Schwab of Austria.

Having spent last week in the reflected glory of that produced by Andrew Dodt’s great week at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, New South Wales golfer Dimi Papadatos gets the chance to create some of his own magic this week when he tees it up in a Challenge Tour event in Switzerland.